SDO Sees An Unraveling Solar Prominence

An elongated solar prominence rose up above the sun's surface and slowly unraveled on Feb. 3, 2016, as seen in this video by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO.

Prominences, also known as filaments when seen over the sun's limb, are clouds of solar material suspended above the sun's surface by the solar magnetic field the same complex magnetism that drives solar events like flares and coronal mass ejections. The solar material in the prominence streams along the sun's magnetic field lines before it thins out and gradually breaks away from the solar surface.

These images were taken in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths of 304 angstroms, a type of light that is invisible to our eyes but is colorized here in red.